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CLEVELAND — Attorney General Mike DeWine’s office said it has exceeded a goal of analyzing 1,500
previously untested rape kits since October 2012.

DeWine announced this week that his office expects to double that amount — testing at least
3,000 kits by this time in 2014.

In late 2011, DeWine issued an open call to police departments across the state urging them to
clear their evidence-room shelves of sexual-assault evidence that had not been examined and could
generate leads in unsolved cases.

DeWine, who oversees the state crime labs, also hired additional staff members to test the older
kits so that DNA testing of evidence in newly reported cases would not be delayed. DeWine recently
announced he was hiring even more analysts to speed up testing.

Since testing began last year, 1,585 kits of more than 4,050 submitted have been tested,
generating more than 500 computer database matches identifying offenders or generating leads in
cases as of Sept. 30.

“The results of this testing initiative go far beyond what we expected one year ago, and we are
pleased to have helped local law enforcement identify hundreds of potential rape suspects in these
past 12 months,” DeWine said in the release.

More than 350 of those leads are in cases investigated by Cleveland police, who have submitted
far more kits than any other department statewide.